Tom Ronningen

Review: "Stage Four" by Touché Amoré

What is the music of mourning? What is the passing of a loved one, put to record? There are scores of albums on death as a general idea, but how often does one attempt to explain death with a time, a place, and a person? How often does rock music dare to fumble with the idiosyncrasies and messiness of one specific loss?  When we think of albums that seek to honor someone’s memory, we don’t usually think of rollicking, power-chord driven hardcore. Touché Amoré set out to change that with their 2016 album Stage Four.